SAN JUAN, June 11 Puerto Ricans headed to the polls on Sunday to decide whether or not they want their economically struggling US territory to become the 51st USA state, although a vote in favor would likely face an uphill battle in Congress.
Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello campaigned for the island's 2.2 million eligible voters to select statehood as the best avenue to boost future growth for the struggling island.
Almost half a million votes were cast for statehood, more than 7,600 for free association/independence and almost 6,700 for the current territorial status.
Several opposition parties had urged residents to boycott the referendum, raising questions about the validity of the vote - meaning only 23 percent of registered voters showed up to cast a ballot.
Puerto Rico previously voted in favor of becoming a state in 2012, but statehood opponents said the voter turnout was not high enough to accurately reflect will of the Puerto Rican people. The Puerto Rican Independence Party had called the vote a "farce". The administration of Gov. Ricardo Rossello added it and sent the ballot back for review, but the department said it needed more time and asked that the vote be postponed, which it wasn't.
So what the governor has said is that he's going to now - based on this 97 percent vote in favor of statehood, will now elect two United States senators and five congressmen and send them to Congress and demand admission as a state.
Those inequalities and the ongoing crisis prompted 66-year-old Maria Quinones to vote for the first time in such a referendum, the fifth on Puerto Rico's status. Some Puerto Ricans blame the current recession on the USA government, partly because of the elimination of tax credits that many say led to the collapse of the island's manufacturing sector.
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"I pray to God that before I die I see Puerto Rico as the 51st state", Edwin Alicea, an Army veteran, told CNNMoney. Since 1898, Puerto Rico has functioned as a "commonwealth" of the US, essentially making it a colony of Washington.
The archipelago is now an "unincorporated territory" of the US, which means it doesn't have a vote in the US Congress but the Congress has full jurisdiction over the territory.
As American citizens, often proudly so, Puerto Ricans can freely enter the U.S., live and work. Thanks to its triple-tax-exemption (interest is free from federal, state, or local income taxation), individual investors and tax-exempt bond funds have been soaking up the island's debt offerings for years, allowing it to spend far beyond its means.
"The PPD has always defended democracy and exercising the right to vote, but at this moment we cannot give our consent and our vote for a process that is not useful, that is not binding and that only wants to deceive our people", Ferrer said Wednesday, according to Terra.
Some argued the results should have been considered a "no" since more than one-third of voters left the part about alternative status blank. The governor, Rosselló, has called this a great victory for statehood.
Unemployment on the island, which has 3.4 million residents, stands at 12%, and the cost of living has risen rapidly.
Many believe the island's territorial status has contributed to its economic crisis, largely caused by decades of heavy borrowing and the elimination of federal tax incentives.
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